Thursday, May 12, 2011

Every now and then we here at Calamity of Challenge like to appraise and critique the work submitted to us by up and coming artistic young guns, and this week we have a pin-up that was sent to us by a young gentleman named Michael Allred. Michael is working on his own comic called THE MAD MAN, which from the sounds of it is based on the hit AMC TV show THE MAD MEN. Can't wait to see how he draws those gorgeous ladies on the program...VA-VA-VOOM!!

Anyhoo, let's take a look at Mike's piece...

Now, first of all let me say that Mr. Allred has a great sense of the dynamic. This is a beautifully composed piece, with each character highlighted without overshadowing the other figures near them. His brush work is wonderfully varied and the ink wash he's used is sublime. The portrayal of Skullady in particular is delicately rendered showing her lady parts to full effect and yet it still conveys the horrific fact that she has a skull-face. DOO DAH indeed!

Now for the negative - Michael has committed a mistake that many a budding brush-slinger makes in that he's written directly on the drawing - in this case a note to the colorist "ALL RED 2011". First off, I personally feel that using only one color on this would be a mistake. Yes, red is a powerful hue but it may be overwhelming on this piece. And he's chosen Pantone 2011 which is not an actual PMS color so I'm assuming he means 201. Regardless, this sort of notation should be made on the edge of the artwork or on a Post-it note rather than within the drawing itself. He should also consider signing his work because as a rookie people may not easily recognize that style as his own, but he's getting there.

Luckily my boys over at Trippendicular Studios ignore most artist notes anyway and were able to color Mike's work thusly...